MotoGP live ticker Spielberg: Acosta dominates practice Friday

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Acosta put himself in an early favorite role at KTM’s home Grand Prix with his Friday performance. Can he confirm this tomorrow in qualifying and the sprint? Ducati still has some catching up to do. Especially Marc Marquez remained rather inconspicuous today and focused on his race pace. But when it counts, the world champion is always good for a surprise.

For today, we sign off from our live ticker, but we will be back tomorrow in time for the last morning practice sessions and will comment on all qualifying sessions and races as usual, of which there will be two tomorrow with the MotoGP sprint and the Baggers. Until then!

The schedule for Saturday:
08:40-09:10: Moto3 FP2
09:25-09:55: Moto2 FP2
10:10-10:40: MotoGP FP2
10:50-11:05: MotoGP Q1
11:15-11:30: MotoGP Q2
12:05-12:25: Baggers Qualifying

12:45-13:00: Moto3 Q1
13:10-13:25: Moto3 Q2
13:40-13:55: Moto2 Q1
14:05-14:20: Moto2 Q2
15:00: MotoGP Sprint (14 laps)
16:10: Baggers Race 1 (9 laps)

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While Archie McDonald was still ahead in the morning, Eric Granado ends the Bagger World Cup Friday practice at the top. With a time of 1:39.014 minutes, he clearly beats Oscar Gutierrez, who is four tenths behind in second place. McDonald is third this time, followed by Andrea Iannone and Maxwell Toth. The top 5 are within half a second.

– for the complete practice results

Acosta leaves nothing to chance until the end and improves to 1:28.371 minutes. Thus, he remains unbeaten this Friday. Aldeguer pushes Ogura off second place and is Acosta’s closest pursuer with a 0.127-second deficit. Marc Marquez is fourth, Martin fifth.

Di Giannantonio leads the second half of the top 10 ahead of Binder, Alex Marquez, Bezzecchi, and Quartararo, all of whom advance directly to Q2. Marini narrowly misses out as eleventh, just four thousandths short!

In total, 19 riders are within one second at the end. Bagnaia lands far from the top 10 in 18th place with a 0.885-second deficit.

Now returning rider Ogura makes his presence felt. He initially ranks third and gains another position on the next lap. Strong performance!

Martin reduces the gap to Acosta to 0.222 seconds and moves up to second place. Marc Marquez, Aldeguer, Zarco, Moreira, Ogura, Binder, Quartararo, and Marini hold the remaining top-10 spots. The final run is still pending.

It continues and the track is now very busy. Alex Marquez is also preparing to go out on his second bike.

The current order: Acosta, Marc Marquez, Aldeguer, Zarco, Moreira, Ogura, Binder, Marini, Martin, Espargaro. All are in the pits until the track is released.

With just under twelve minutes left on the clock, the session is interrupted. Track marshals have to recover Alex Marquez, who is lying in the grass next to the track. Some debris has also landed on the asphalt.

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Alex Marquez crashed exiting the first corner and now has to quickly return to the pits. The clock is ticking and he is currently not in the top 10.

The last 15 minutes of practice begin and the next riders go out with fresh tires. Aldeguer slots in as the new second behind Acosta, who still leads by half a second. Moreira is third. In the final minutes, the field is likely to tighten up again.

Acosta has improved his own best time on fresh tires again. It now stands at 1:28.381 minutes. Marini also improves on fresh tires to second place but is six tenths behind.

Most riders are currently focusing on working with used tires and preparing for the race. Only in the final phase will there be qualifying attempts to secure direct entry to Q2. Only the top 10 advance directly.

Zarco becomes the first crash rider in this session. He crashes into the gravel trap at turn 4. Shortly after, Moreira also locks up there but stays seated and is lucky on his way through the gravel not to hit the running Zarco. The race direction will take a close look at this.

After the first run, Acosta leads ahead of Bezzecchi, who is 0.370 seconds behind. Quartararo is third. Zarco and Marc Marquez are fourth and fifth. Alex Marquez, Bastianini, Aldeguer, Di Giannantonio, and Martin follow. 15 riders are within one second.

The pace is immediately higher under the current conditions than in the morning. On lap five, Acosta pushes the best time to 1:28.840 minutes – the first time under 1:29.

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